Originally designed because the Bombardier CSeries, the Airbus A220 was first launched in 2008 by the Canadian manufacturer. For 2 years, the jet served commercially with the Bombardier name before the aircraft’s denotation was officially modified in 2018 when Airbus announced the acquisition of a 50.01% stake in this system.
Today, the Airbus A220 flies on over 1,100 routes worldwide and visits over 375 destinations repeatedly. With a spread of as much as 3,600 nautical miles, the aircraft can truly fly a mind-boggling array of routes, starting from 30-minute regional hops to long-haul 8-hour treks.
In total, the aircraft family has flown over 1 billion km, connecting an incredible 90 million people to relations and destinations across the globe.
A novel origin story
Unlike the remaining of Airbus’s business lineup, the story of the A220 doesn’t begin in a design room in Toulouse, but as a substitute across the Atlantic in Quebec, where Bombardier engineers sought to expand beyond the corporate’s traditional lineup of just regional jets.
Soon, production delays, budget overruns, and an anti-competition petition filed by American jet manufacturer Boeing led a cash-strapped Bombardier to partner with Airbus.
Not only was the European corporation in a position to help market the jet and support the aircraft’s manufacturing costs, Airbus’s final assembly line in Mobile, Alabama, nullified Boeing’s dumping petition, because the aircraft would now be legally made in the US.
Photo: Adomas Daunoravicius I Shutterstock.
Eventually, in 2020, Bombardier would sell its remaining stake in this system for $591 million, and Airbus now maintains a 75% interest in this system with investment firm Investissement Quebec maintaining a 25% stake. Airbus could acquire this remaining share as early as 2030.
Now, the jet stands as an especially modern airliner, reducing fuel burn and carbon emissions by 25% compared to the previous generation of aircraft. Moreover, the A220 brings a 50% smaller noise footprint than former aircraft of the jet’s size.
A bestseller
The Airbus A220 thus far has performed extremely well, with the family maintaining a healthy backlog and consistent deliveries. Overall, the A220 has sold over 806 units to this point, with 271 of those having been delivered to airlines by June 2023.
The overwhelming majority of A220 orders have come for the larger Airbus A220-300 variant, with 713 orders and 215 deliveries. The manufacturer has delivered 56 units of the smaller A220-100 variant, with a backlog of 37 units remaining for the sort.
Photo: Vincenzo Pace | Easy Flying
Airlines have enjoyed the aircraft’s incredible versatility and proceed to accumulate the jet in droves. Just just a few weeks ago, on the third day of the Paris Air Show, Angolan flag carrier TAAG added two recent A220-300 jets to its fleet.
Some carriers, similar to Breeze Airways and AirBaltic have grown to rely heavily upon the jet, with the latter establishing a brand new winter base in Gran Canaria that may see strong A220 traffic within the upcoming winter. Notably, airBaltic’s longest A220 flight reaches a length of seven hours, with the carrier connecting Tampere in Finland with Tenerife South.